How I Met Your Mother Recap: Lost in Translation

How I Met Your Mother Recap: Lost in Translation

What an awkward episode. “Romeward Bound” was misleading in its questionably spoilerific title — a move to Italy for Marshall and Lily doesn’t fit the plot of the ninth season, but it still gave away the night’s conclusion in what was a clumsily executed, finale-nearing installment. How could we believe that Lily would refuse a job on the basis of a quick trip to MacLaren’s, without even speaking to her husband? And how can we accept that Marshall has been goofing off for months at his law firm, where there have been massive layoffs, without telling his wife that his livelihood was possibly in jeopardy (clever lies notwithstanding)? Both of these developments would have warranted entire arcs of their own, but since obviously neither was thoroughly considered, HIMYM settled for an implausibly neat resolution. Lily’s going to follow the Captain to Rome as an art consultant after all — or at least for the time being.